Directed by Johnnie To and Andrew Kam, and produced by Tsui Hark, The Big Heat is an underseen classic of 80s Hong Kong action cinema, presented here in a newly-restored version. While John Woo at the time focused on heroic bloodshed, noble outlaws and balletic gun battles, To and Kam go a different route entirely, using the genre to depict a Hong Kong on the brink of chaos and constantly on the verge of erupting into bloody violence. With corruption, greed and betrayal the order of the day the film paints a grim but thrilling picture of capitalism gone mad, giving us a seething satire on the dark side of the city’s economic boom.
Inspector Waipong Wong has to put his life and resignation from the Hong Kong police department on hold to investigate his former partner’s mysterious murder. What he and his crack team of three other cops uncover is a plot far more sinister than they originally anticipated, and the closer they get to the truth the more brutal things become.
